Pro Wrestling Chronicle

John Philapavage discusses the subtext of angles and women in ROH, in a post Sweeney-Danger-Dempsey world.

There are so many debates over booking and business regarding ROH. Some of them are fun to talk about, and some really frustrate me because it’s an ideological argument where no facts from either side will suffice. Business-wise I just want them to stay afloat and away from the mainstream. But business-wise I’m not collecting a check, so I’m also not overly concerned. I usually favor ROH’s booking over most other promotions. People often argue creativity when anything is wacky or alot is happening in other feds, but I find that ROH booking usually has the detail work and sound logic by the end of most angles that I’m more satisfied with than say the goofy fun of Chikara (a great promotion) or the business of TNA (Not my thing).

I was at the NYC event that spawned the so-called ROH “Rape Angle” and Internet site hy[erbole that followed. I was saddened that the segment was over analyzed and dissected for salacious material to the point I was wondering if people would get the torches and pitchforks. In fact, I know people had to have their Torches (Wink), even if I think they do a strong job otherwise.

Unfortunately that angle does lead to greater analysis, which it should. There ARE alot of booking issues I’m seeing lately here and there where I think, “you owe me Gabe, because I’m booking this in my head with better details!”
To be fair, it’s much easier to get somewhere once a solid mind like Gabe has set the wheels in motion. He’s still my favorite booker of this decade. Overall he gets to the right places, and the broad stuff is fun and acceptable within the ROH ethos. My problem is alot of it is lazy stuff. There are many traces of the same thing WWE gets shamed for by adults who still love wrestling. It’s written to the lowest common denominator. All the material focusing on the female characters of ROH - for lack of a better term - SUCKS and has me shaking my head.

I mean, you can argue Dazie Haze is a strong female character, but I’d argue she’s an also-ran runt girl who is just starting to get into the mid card angle she should have had 2 years ago (the comedy love angle with Delirious).

Tammy Sytch could have come in and said “Yeah, maybe I slutted it up when I was 24, Lacey. I’m older now and I know more about business and what it takes to lead a wrestler to gold than you ever could. I’m not a valet who shows a guy to the ring, I manage a career. I just happen to be sexier then you too (cue striking a pose)”. Did they do that? No. I don’t care what Dave Meltzer says, Tammy has been worthless in ROH. She plays an old whore. A one dimensional whore at that. It’s not even well thought out enough to be “the older women” in a Mrs. Robinson sort of way. Nor is her relationship to Chris Candido played up in the sense of living with the business at home, or even lower, for sympathy.
Again and again Gabe Sapolsky has been so basic and undefined in character sketch writing or co-oping with his women where he was once stronger before. His mentor, Paul Heyman,was full of misogonistic crap himself. But he had characters that, though misguided and maybe not likable to all, had alot of depth. Even the heels had ALOT of depth. In the early days of ROH CM Punk had ALOT of depth. which brings us to Aries and Lacey….

After all that discussion of AOTF and Lacey’s character after creative use of online and a social conscious not seen since Fight Club, what do ya know! Austin Aries is just a typical jock who brags crudely about sexual exploits and represents Lacey not as a surprise love in a Romeo & Juliet star-crossed lovers scenario, but as the whore he’s now banging, and an object to be taken from Jimmy Jacobs.

A possible great story is lost here wherein Aries decides to leave with Lacey, only to jettison her later that same night. Lacey goes with Aries because that’s her mission, though both are conflicted. Aries partially wants to sleep with her to teach Jimmy a lesson, but also finds her devious and despicable. Lacey is on a mission for her “cause”, after all. She has no real intention of being with him. They spend two weeks together with her at first thinking she’s in control of the situation, only to fall for Aries when she cannot seduce him, nor intellectually get AOTF’s purpose across. Rather, he convinces her she’s been wronged and brain washed, and this ending should have played out in Chicago during ROH’s April show.

Lacey ended up a flat character. The whore who slept with Cabana and ignored poor loyal Jimmy, only to notice him once he went all out to impress her, and then treated her with respect after they (implied) slept together. In fact it later comes out that once he “had” her he no longer wanted her, but instead fell in love with his social crusade, even if that’s not entirely accurate. Either way, in her character’s mind Jimmy Jacobs rejected her, making her want him more. But here is the underlying message: What slutty Lacey really wanted, even though Jimmy holds onto and suppresses his feelings and encourages her to abandon her own for AOTF’s social change cause, is a man that will “give it to her better”.

Lacey comes out of this not as a conflicted women who really does want love or has goals, but a motive-less, face-less hot girl who slept with 3 wrestlers in less than two years.

Gabe Sapolsky has never come across as a chauvinistic “man’s man” who has a girl in every town. In fact, for a business whose performers often use women as a sexual outlet for frustration or conquest, Gabe appears to be a faithful husband. But as a crafted storyteller, he sure doesn’t do much challenging with female character’s to make me see ROH as anything but a byproduct of the misogynistic ECW.